Quit trifling with Second Amendment

Published: Friday, January 18, 2013 at 09:42 PM.

The argument for ownership of assault weapons is the Second Amendment to our Constitution.

Hold on, you say? It does not say one can own one of these terrible weapons. You are right. It says that we can “keep and bear arms.”

In his Jan. 13 letter to the editor headlined, “Type of ‘arms’ not part of Second Amendment,” Ray W. Smith said our Founding Fathers imagined only weapons they were familiar with — those being cap-and-ball pistols and muskets. I am sorry, but all our Founding Fathers had were flintlock ball and powder weapons. Had the knowledge to construct the weapons of today been known to them, perhaps they would have put that in writing to have and bear these assault weapons — as they are “arms.”

Passed by Congress in Sept. 25, 1789, and ratified Dec. 15, 1791, the Second Amendment says: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

“Infringed” means to break or ignore, the terms or obligations of (an oath, agreement, law, or the like), to disregard; violate.

How about we enforce the gun laws we have on the books and leave the Second Amendment alone.

The argument for ownership of assault weapons is the Second Amendment to our Constitution.

Hold on, you say? It does not say one can own one of these terrible weapons. You are right. It says that we can “keep and bear arms.”

In his Jan. 13 letter to the editor headlined, “Type of ‘arms’ not part of Second Amendment,” Ray W. Smith said our Founding Fathers imagined only weapons they were familiar with — those being cap-and-ball pistols and muskets. I am sorry, but all our Founding Fathers had were flintlock ball and powder weapons. Had the knowledge to construct the weapons of today been known to them, perhaps they would have put that in writing to have and bear these assault weapons — as they are “arms.”

Passed by Congress in Sept. 25, 1789, and ratified Dec. 15, 1791, the Second Amendment says: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

“Infringed” means to break or ignore, the terms or obligations of (an oath, agreement, law, or the like), to disregard; violate.

How about we enforce the gun laws we have on the books and leave the Second Amendment alone.